Common Sense Media Review
Mild mystery tries too hard to be Lemony Snicket.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
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Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 12 parent reviews
Parents say the book is a delightful mix of mystery and light-hearted humor that captivates children, with some finding the spooky elements appropriately engaging rather than frightening. However, some parents express concerns over a few darker themes and language that may not align with their family's values, leading to mixed recommendations for different age groups.
- light-hearted tone
- engaging mystery
- darker themes
- mixed recommendations
- age concerns
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
Based on 64 kid reviews
What's the Story?
Cass carries around a backpack with survival gear, supposedly because her father was killed by lightning, except he wasn't, so it's not really an excuse. Max-Ernest is an incessant chatterbox, which lands him in therapy and social pariah-hood. They team up to look into a mysterious coded message left in the belongings of an elderly magician who apparently died in a fire.
What they find is a group of mysterious immortals who kidnap children with synesthesia, for reasons that never become completely clear, but are apparently connected to their method of prolonging life. When a boy from their school is kidnapped, they decide to try to rescue him.
Is It Any Good?
The fun part is the mystery: Children with a taste for this kind of thing will enjoy the clues and codes, and will wish for more of them. Some will be immediately obvious to many kids, while others are more clever, but this part of the story is a fairly humorous romp. The dreary part is the author's voice: Apparently trying to take a leaf from Lemony Snicket's books, he gives incessant warnings about how dangerous it is to read the book; this, combined with the utter lack of anything that justifies the build-up, comes across as lame at best and annoying at worst.
The sum of these parts, along with some plot holes and lapses in logic, make for a book that is modestly entertaining at times and irritating at others. But given the dearth of books in this particular genre of lighthearted mysteries involving codes and a touch of the supernatural, kids who loved Lemony Snicket's or Blue Balliett's books will want to read this too.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the various types of secret codes used in the book, including keyword codes and anagrams -- and maybe play around with some secret codes for a little family fun. Which types of secret code appeal to you most? Can you make up a secret code?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Mystery
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company
- Publication date : October 1, 2007
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 360
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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